Why fruit & veg fight cancer
2008-11-03 18:02
New York - British researchers may
have discovered why diets rich in fruits and vegetables can
lower cancer risk.
Patrick Gunning and scientists at the Institute of Food
Research in Norwich said it could be due to a complex
carbohydrate called pectin.
In lab experiments they found it
binds to and may inhibit a protein believed to facilitate the
spread of cancer throughout the body.
The findings, published in the FASEB Journal, offer another
reason to eat fruits and vegetables.
"At present, given what we know from our study and the
others, we feel that the best advice is to eat plenty of fruit
and vegetables in the likelihood that it will supply bioactive
fragments from the pectins," Gunning said.
Inhibiting effect
He and his colleagues found that certain sugars in pectin
bind to galectin-3, a protein on the surface of tumour cells
that helps the cells grow and spread throughout the body.
This binding, in turn, may allow pectin to inhibit
galectin-3, and thereby slow or even reverse the spread of
cancer cells, Gunning explained.
Gunning said there are still many questions that need to be
answered, including how the body takes up the particular
fragments within pectin.
Pectin is often used as a gelling agent in jams and
jellies, but Gunning advised against loading up on the
condiments.
Research has not shown processed fruit products to
be greater cancer fighters than fresh fruit and, Gunning
pointed out, jams and jellies are typically high in added
sugar.
- Reuters